ATAG Dedicated Server is up!

[klem]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Bliss

Beta definitely!

Good !

[bw_wolverine]

New mission:

Aparently the 2nd British Bomber Flight gets destroyed many many times? Not sure if this is a bug or not. Pretty much like clockwork it came up every five minutes or so, along with Objective 11 Complete!

[Ataros]

S!, ATAG team!

I think some experienced C# coders are working on missions for your great server now. I hope the upcoming patch will fix CTD issue and allow more bombers flying in formation. As many people are missing COOP-style missions I have a suggestion for your server that can possibly make gameplay even more objective-based and incite more organized squads to participate making it truly tactical experience:

- a squad or any group of pilots on comms spawn in fighters/bombers at a same airfield. Probably there should be a limit like not less than 5 players must spawn together for a mission.

- anyone of them uses Mission Menu to command the server to spawn a group of AI bombers at the same airfield. This person becomes a flight-leader. Script checks how many players are present within a certain radius of the leader.

- number of AI bombers equals from 2x to 1x of number of human players. Bombers can be spawned on the ground or in the air in 5-minutes flight time from airfield with airfield being their next waypoint (to allow takeoff time for human players). Bombers may have standard mission targets for now. Later it is possible to allow flight-leader to select bomber types, target, loadout, altitude and even one - two waypoints as well as secondary pbjectives. The ratio of bombers spawn is varied from 2x to 1x (or less) of number of human players to prevent performance issues because of huge group size.

- friendly team is informed of the mission to gain more escorts

- in some time enemy team is informed of incoming flight to allow guarantied opposition in old-style COOP fashion. Flights without guaranteed opposition may became very boring quickly and will not attract many squad-players. High competitiveness is one of reasons COOPs were so popular among squads.

- 5+ players which participated in the mission creation are not allowed to create new mission for at least 15 minutes to prevent bomber spamming

- squad-based statistics is introduced to incite squads to get organized and create missions. Squads and pilots should get more points for flying squad-created missions or intercepting squad-created missions (for kills within a certain radius from the AI bombers)

- optionally a squad is able to announce a mission in several minutes before its start to invite more players into it. More players allow to spawn more bombers.

- individual pilots who are not on comms may gather a group of 5+ players via chat and create a mission

This activity may be added to current server missions, no need to get rid of current objectives of cause.

At a later stage recon and other types of missions can be added.

AFAIK technically it is possible to implement this now. If the bug breaking the menu for one of sides when number of airgroups exceeds certain number still exists, it is possible to limit number of flights by script, schedule flights for every 20 - 30 minutes, announcing countdown to start time. This will keep number of airgroups low fixing the bug and allow everyone who is interested to participate.

An autobalance script may reduce number of bombers available to one side (and increase fighter respawn time) depending on balance to prevent team stacking.

The main idea behind this is to give players and incentive for flying organized missions together. The incentive is quantity of bombers they can spawn. The more players is gathered the more bombers are available for a particular mission.
I hope squads and players like the idea.

[ATAG_Doc]

This is a good start but I want to say I am not at all a fan of anything that autobalances.

If a person wants do whatever they want then they should be allowed to take that risk.

I agree on providing an incentive to fly organized. I think that is why the server is objective based not statistical based.

I believe fighter squads want to do their thing. That's fine. I'd love to see less emphasis on individual stats and more on red vs. blue over all win/loss.

- squad-based statistics is introduced to incite squads to get organized and create missions. Squads and pilots should get more points for flying squad-created missions or intercepting squad-created missions (for kills within a certain radius from the AI bombers)

I like this objective in the idea. I do wish there was more interest in guys flying fighters to do more escorts or gunner positions. Just know that if your bomber has escorts it requires enemy to have fighters up to defend. That means they will engage bombers and eventually your fighters that come down to fend off the attack then you are at a dogfight again.

I think you have a lot of good ideas. I just do not care to see anything where you are forced to either do it or you just can't go in and create havoc.

There are a ton of people that spawn in and fly around and look for anything to shoot at and do when they see it.

[danjama]

Extremely disappointed in my experience on the ATAG server tonight. The action is spread very thin, even with 40 players in game. When asking for a bit of direction or encouragement in chat, nobody would reply or was of very little use. I found myself flying to locations and patrolling where I expected enemies to be, but they were simply not there.

I do not have TS installed yet on my machine, but i dont see why i should have to enter TS just for a little bit of co-operative play from my team.

This is exactly why I miss IL2 Co-ops.

[ATAG_knuckles]

Danjama: Certainly sorry for your disappointment. Personally I find it very difficult to attempt to fly and type. Also as i am busy looking for enemy I often miss chat messages.

Trust me no one ignores on purpose. Much of the fun in multiplayer is having the opportunity to talk to so many different people, and making friend at the same time.

Give team speak a chance, you wont be disappointed. If you see me on TS give me a holler, we can go to a "help" channel and work on anything you want.


Knuckles

P.S. most of the folkes on TS are a bloody hoot

[danjama]

Originally Posted by ATAG_knuckles

Danjama: Certainly sorry for your disappointment. Personally I find it very difficult to attempt to fly and type. Also as i am busy looking for enemy I often miss chat messages.

Trust me no one ignores on purpose. Much of the fun in multiplayer is having the opportunity to talk to so many different people, and making friend at the same time.

Give team speak a chance, you wont be disappointed. If you see me on TS give me a holler, we can go to a "help" channel and work on anything you want.


Knuckles

P.S. most of the folkes on TS are a bloody hoot

No need to apologise it's not any member of ATAG's fault. I'll definitely make moves to get TS set up, but I just felt people could have been more helpful - especially considering its a closed-cockpit server. As I said though, nobody to blame for that.

Look forward to getting more involved in the future. Was probably just expecting too much because it's a Friday night.

Cheers!

[ATAG_Colander]

Danjama,

There are a couple more things to take into consideration:
1.- The more players in the server, the more the pilots are busy flying/fighting/bombing and talking over TS.
2.- Not everyone on the server speaks English. This also applies to TS as you will notice many times, there are more people on the server than on TS (besides the fact that some squadrons have their own TS server).

In short, I hope your next time is more "enjoyable".

~S~
ATAG_Colander

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/forum.php

[ATAG_Snapper]

Hi Danjama,

I echo Knuck's regrets that your first foray onto the ATAG Server was less than satisfying. I confess that although I keep a chat window open, I miss more than I catch -- it scrolls so quickly. On occasion I've flown with TS deliberately turned off, and the feeling of isolation in such a large map (especially with no icons) can be overwhelming. Even a large furball is easily missed from nearby because the contacts are so inconspicuous.

I'm glad you've indicated that you'll be installing Teamspeak 3. As Knuckles would agree, it will change your experience and immersion 100%. The best tip I can give anyone is to log into the ATAG Server, intro yourself, and simply ask what's doing. If anyone is flying bombers an offer to escort is always gratefully accepted -- they'll give you the specifics of where best to spawn and how to meet up with them.

Here's a quick how-to on setting up TS for ATAG:

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.co...w-to-set-it-up!

If you need any further info, don't hesitate to PM me. Hoping we see you back online with us soon!

Snapper

[ATAG_Septic]

Hi Danjama,

I'm sorry to hear your first time on the server was not very rewarding. Sadly, there's an element of luck with obtaining assistance sometimes.

I was in the Help channel on Teamspeak with a new-to-the-sim flier for two hours last night. In all that time we only managed to get him near to the action once where he tore his ailerons off in his first dive, and he was a very experienced IL2 player. It was a timely reminder to me of just how many hurdles the game presents to someone new, I'm sure many people must just give up with the frustration. There's too often stark evidence of this in chat, as there was last night, when someone could not solicit the necessary assistance but the chat system is so limited that even with the time to type it's not much good for anything complex.

I've seen around forty people on recently, with only a few on Teamspeak and at times I'm guilty of hiding from communication, especially when I'm on late at night as I have to be quiet, but a few hours later and both chat and teamspeak are buzzing and its all immense fun. So I'm glad to hear you've not been put off and have the necessary perseverance to get going with the sim in its current state.

I hope to see you and many more in the skies over Dover soon old chap and if I'm able to be of any help, even in chat, I'll be only to glad to try.

Septic.